EU finance ministers’ meeting cancelled

A meeting of the European Union’s finance ministers planned for tomorrow (26 October) has been cancelled because of doubts that eurozone governments will be able to come up with a comprehensive solution to the sovereign-debt crisis, according to EU sources.

The meeting was arranged by Poland, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of Ministers, to prepare summits of the EU’s 27 national leaders and of the 17 eurozone leaders. At the summits, leaders were meant to finalise measures to tackle the eurozone crisis, including cutting Greece’s debt burden, increasing the firepower of the eurozone bail-out fund, and recapitalising Europe’s banks.

But the announcement that the meeting of finance ministers has been cancelled has raised fears that leaders will be unable to come up with these measures.

A statement issued by the Polish presidency today said: “Work on the comprehensive package of measures to curb the sovereign-debt crisis will be continued at the meeting of heads of state and government on 26 October in Brussels.”

“Further work at the level of ministers of finance will be conducted based on the outcome of the [heads of state] meeting. The aim is to adopt all necessary elements and details concerning the package, as promptly as possible.”